Investigation of former chief is only latest trouble for Tea

But mayor says town's police strong

Nov. 17, 2012

The Tea police station. / Melissa Sue Gerrits / Argus Leader

Written by

John Lawler

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Questions continue to swirl about the future of the police force in Tea in the wake of the resignation of its chief and one of its officers Nov. 6 and an investigation by the state attorney general’s office .

The Tea City Council will meet Monday night for the first time since Chief Brian Ketterhagen and officer James Klimple quit without public explanation.

City leaders said they learned a few days after Ketterhagen’s resignation that he was being sued for withholding evidence in a cold case murder investigation in Wyoming.

The target of that investigation, Troy Willoughby, spent three years behind bars in a 1984 shooting before the evidence was revealed and a new trial freed him.

The attorney general’s office is investigating Ketterhagen for unrelated allegations of misconduct in Tea. Details of the allegations have not been made public.

The resignations add to a series of missteps by current and former officers at the Tea Police Department within the past three years. The incidents include the arrest of one officer on a felony charge of driving under the influence and prescription drug fraud, the demotion and eventual firing of Ketterhagen’s predecessor and an alcohol-fueled incident involving reckless discharge of a firearm by one part-time and one former officer.

The city already has begun looking for a new officer and chief to fill out the police department roster and provide protection in the city of 4,000, which Mayor John Lawler says is the city’s priority.

“The main thing we’re trying to get across is that we’re moving forward,” Lawler said. “We still have 24-hour police protection, and we still live in a safe city.”

Tea has four full-time officers, with Assistant Chief Brian Tvedt acting as chief in the interim.

Other officers, other problems in Tea

One officer, Curtis Rabenberg, was arrested in April 2010 for DUI while serving on the department. Rabenberg had DUIs on his record from Turner and Lincoln counties in 2007 when he applied for the Tea Police Department job.

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At the time, Rabenberg wasn’t a certified law enforcement officer in South Dakota. Officers are required to earn certification within a year of being hired to work in the field, according to state Department of Criminal Investigation spokeswoman Sara Rabern.

Rabenberg previously had been employed by the Sioux Falls Police Department from 2003 through 2006. His certification expired in 2008.

Rabenberg was fired in April 2010, shortly after the arrest in Lincoln County for a third-offense DUI. He was arrested weeks afterward in Sioux Falls, accused of fraud and misrepresentation to obtain a controlled substance.

Ketterhagen, a former Wyoming sheriff’s deputy and Milwaukee police sergeant, was not certified at the time he was hired in August 2010, either, but he earned his certification within a year.

Another former Tea officer, Sarina Waterman, was disciplined last year after a 2010 incident in Davison County. Waterman, employed as a Tea police officer from 2007 to 2009, along with a Mitchell police officer named Mark Gruhlke and a part-time Tea police officer named Keith Munro were riding in a pickup April 21, 2010, when the incident occurred.

A report from the Law Enforcement Standards and Training Commission said Gruhlke was driving under the influence of alcohol that night as the trio took turns firing at a road sign. Gruhlke and Munro lost their certifications as a result of the incident after a hearing in February 2011.

Waterman, a Centerville police department officer at the time of the incident, had her certification suspended for six months.

Lawler pointed out Friday that Waterman’s conduct didn’t take place while she was employed with the department and that Munro was only filling in shifts at the time and was pulled from the rolls soon after the shooting incident came to light.

Jo Niles, a Tea resident who unsuccessfully ran for mayor this year, said the city ought to set the bar higher for its potential employees. Hiring certified officers would be a good start, she said.

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Problems with Ketterhagen were “bound to happen,” Niles said.

“They hired another guy who wasn’t even certified,” she said. “They need to do a better job screening these candidates.”

Contracting out for law enforcement

The City Council explored the dissolution of the department in favor of a law enforcement contract with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department for police service, an idea that angered many longtime residents and ultimately was dropped in 2010.

Those discussions have not been revived, although city officials recognize that the topic could return, with many pointing out that the city might save money by contracting for law enforcement, as the city of Harrisburg does.

The city of Tea budgeted $378,190. Harrisburg, which contracts with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, budgeted $206,954 for 120 hours a week of police service.

The discussion in Tea took place in the March 2010, just days after the council asked then-chief Ken Haugen to step down and work as an officer.

Residents circulated a petition, demanding that the council keep the police force, and the idea was shelved in April.

Lawler and council member Herman Otten said this week that no discussions of contracting with the county have taken place, and Lincoln County Sheriff Dennis Johnson said no one in the city has inquired about it since Ketterhagen’s resignation.

Haugen was fired in 2010, shortly after Ketterhagen was hired as chief. Haugen sued the city last year, but the case was dismissed in September.

Otten said the resignation of Ketterhagen, regardless of the outcome of the attorney general’s investigation, could force a review of the way the city hires and evaluates its force.

“Those are discussions we need to have in terms of how the department needs to evolve,” Otten said. “Maybe we need to add some other levels when it comes to hiring and firing.”

Even so, he said, “there are some personnel issues you just can’t control.”

At the time of his interview in Tea, Ketterhagen recently had helped secure a conviction of Willoughby in Wyoming, and his background check — performed by a third party — came up clean.

The case was reopened last year when a former co-worker of Ketterhagen’s came forward with information from an old police report that pointed to an alibi for Willoughby. Ketterhagen and two others knew about the report and failed to hand it over to lawyers in the case.

Willoughby was re-tried in February, and Ketterhagen testified. He took vacation time from his duties as chief to do that. He did not inform the council he’d gone to Wyoming to testify, Lawler said.